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Chalcraft-Pickering Family Papers, 1821-1954

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Chalcraft, Edwin L., 1855-1943
Title
Chalcraft-Pickering Family Papers
Dates
1821-1954 (inclusive)
Quantity
2 Linear feet of shelf space, (3 Boxes)
Collection Number
Cage 560 (collection)
Summary
The Chalcraft-Pickering Family Papers are comprised chiefly of the diaries of Edwin Chalcraft, long-time Indian Service employee, and documents, chiefly letters, associated with his father-in-law William Pickering, Territorial Governor of Washington in the 1860s.
Repository
Washington State University Libraries' Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections
Terrell Library Suite 12
Pullman, WA
99164-5610
Telephone: 509-335-6691
mascref@wsu.edu
Access Restrictions

This collection is open and available for research use.

Languages
English
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Biographical Note

Edwin L. Chalcraft was born on November 13, 1855 near Albion, Illinois, where he lived until his marriage to Alice Pickering on October 13, 1880. In 1881, they visited her brother in “Squak Valley” (now Issaquah), near Seattle, Washington. Edwin started an office of civil engineering and Alice became a teacher at the first “Squak Valley” school.

In 1886, an economic downturn induced Chalcraft to enter government service as Superintendent of the Chehalis Indian Reservation and Boarding School, seventy-five miles southwest of Seattle. He worked there until 1889 when he became superintendent of the Puyallup Agency near Tacoma. In 1894, the couple moved near Salem, Oregon and Chalcraft became the superintendent of the Chemawa Indian Training School.

He was dismissed from the school in 1895 and between 1895 and 1900 Chalcraft worked as a surveyor and managed a grocery store and a shingle mill at Mt. Vernon, near Seattle. The Indian Agency reinstated Chalcraft in 1900 and sent him to the Shoshone Reservation in Wyoming. Soon thereafter, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs appointed Chalcraft as Supervisor of Indian Schools in which position he visited and inspected schools across the country. In 1904, he successfully requested to be reassigned to the Salem Indian Training School at Chemawa, Oregon; in 1911, the Agency Commissioner again transferred Chalcraft, this time to the James Male Academy in Oklahoma and again in 1914 to the Siletz Agency in western Oregon as superintendent. He retired in 1925 and he and his wife returned to live in Seattle.

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Biographical Note

William Pickering, Governor of Washington Territory from 1862 to 1866, was the grandfather of Alice Pickering Chalcraft. He was born March 15, 1797, in a small village in Yorkshire, in the North of England. He emigrated to North America in the 1820s, acquiring property and involving himself in various businesses in the area of Albion, Illinois. In the 1840s he was elected to the Illinois State Legislature, and in the later 1850s he attached himself to the political cause of Abraham Lincoln, who appointed Pickering as Governor of Washington Territory. Pickering lived with his son Richard at Albion in later years. He died there in 1873.

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Historical Note

Between 1819 and 1969, the United States operated boarding and day schools which directly targeted American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children in a policy of cultural assimilation which coincided with the taking of Indigenous peoples’ territories. In schools operated by the federal government and churches, children were often forcibly removed from their families, forced to change their names, and forbidden from speaking their languages and practicing their traditions. Many children died while in the custody of these schools from infectious diseases; many suffered physical, emotional, sexual, and spiritual abuse; many children never returned home and the government and churches that ran these schools did not inform their families of what happened to them. For more information, please see The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.

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Content Description

The Chalcraft-Pickering Family Papers are comprised chiefly of the diaries of Edwin Chalcraft, long-time Indian Service employee, and documents, chiefly letters, associated with his father-in-law William Pickering, Territorial Governor of Washington in the 1860s. The Chalcraft diaries record many Indian Service matters, as well as personal observations and concerns. The majority of the William Pickering documents are from the 1820s and 1830s, chiefly correspondence to his family in England short after his emigration to North America. Some miscellaneous business papers of Richard Pickering are also included.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Copyright restrictions may apply.

Preferred Citation

[Item description]

Chalcraft-Pickering Family Papers, 1821-1954 (Cage 560)

Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The materials are seperated into Chalcraft Family and Pickering Family series. Within those series, correspondence and diaries are arranged chronologically, other materials are arranged by topic.

Acquisition Information

The Chalcraft-Pickering Family Papers, including the photographs, were acquired by the Washington State University Libraries in 1986 (MS86-54) from Florian Shasky, a dealer in out-of-print books and manuscript materials.

Processing Note

In 2024 staff at Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections found that the Biographical Note of this finding aid presented Chalcraft in an unambiguously positive light and did not ascribe Native Americans any historical agency while utilizing language that was insensitive and lacked nuance. A new, well-researched biographical note would be the most desirable outcome; until then, we put in place a new note that, while shorter, lays out the major events of Chalcraft’s career without passing judgment on them. We also added a note on historical context. We welcome feedback or thoughts from our researchers.

Separated Materials

Photographs recieved as part of this collection were seperated out to make the Chalcraft-Pickering Photographs, 1862-1941 (PC 82)

Related Materials

Confederated Tribes of Siletz Records, Mss 442, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

Chemawa Indian School research collection, WUA128, Willamette University Archives and Special Collections.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Finding aid prepared by Harvey Young. Updated by Lotus Norton-Wisla, Will Gregg, and Gayle O'Hara.
2022, 2024

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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